Have any of you used raileurope.com to book Eurostar tickets (London-Paris)? Are they reliable? do they charge a lot of extra commission? Is there a better place to find the best deals? Thanks.

I'll speak to what little I know - - but this much is factual, for sure. They do charge a significant mark-up - - and the cheaper the (point-to-point) ticket, the worse it is, in percentage terms. A $10 ticket might cost you $15-20, plus that much again for "handling" (per order). <BR> <BR>But having said that, they are having a sale right now, that might be very worthwhile. The following story from www.frommers.com is what I know about it. <BR> <BR>http://www.frommers.com/newsletters/.../article4.html <BR> <BR>I trust that Fodors will forgive me for quoting a news story from their (sort of) competitor (but not in the message board arena!) <BR>

I bought tickets from them for Eurostar for travel during the Christmas holidays. <BR> <BR>They were more expensive and it turned out not to be nessesary to have advanced purchased tickets. <BR> <BR>There were plenty of extra seats on the train and lots of people were purchasing tickets for same day and immediate departure with no problems - and this is the absolute BUSIEST time of year. Anyone who doesn't believe that should wait in line for 5 hours in the cold rain to get into the Tower of London. <BR> <BR>And when I mis-placed my return ticket <BR>from Paris, the Eurostar people didn'thave any record of me - I had to purchase another ticket...but again there were plenty of seats ready for immediate travel. <BR> <BR>So, in retrospect, I would just wait until I get there to buy tickets.

Raileurope does not have the specials that are featured on the local rail sites. For example, we bought round trip Paris-London first class weekend tickets for something like $120 per person, while raileurope wanted $299 or so. Since the very cheap fares were not bookable online we asked our hotel to buy the tickets and they did.

My husband and I have bought Eurail passes (1998) and point to point passes (1999) through Raileurope. They were reliable and easy and we were able to get our reserved seats + sleeper cars reserved as well. That said, I know we paid too much for them Raileurope charges the ticket price + reservation fee + handling fee. Since we decided on our next Europe jaunt I am considering booking once I get there with the possible exception of a reserved sleeper car. But I must say that their website is a great way to familiarize yourself with timetables and train routes.

Try DER travel for another source.

Last October we bought first class rail plus first class sleeper supplement from Messina to Bolzano for about $125 each from a travel agent in Sicily. I was very glad we hadn't purchased ahead from Raileurope which was quoting $137 each for the 1st class ticket only (no sleeper).I think I would only use Raileurope if I needed a sleeper reservation or was going on an all day trip within a day or two of arrival and it was a peak season. Also, you might take into consideration how many trains are on the route and the number of alternatives.